


The Beginning

by thesunandthestars



Category: Rapunzel's Tangled Adventure, Tangled (2010), Tangled: The Series (Cartoon)
Genre: Basically just Eugene and Rapunzel as P.T. and Charity, F/M, Fluff, Mostly just inner thoughts, Romance, short one-shot, the greatest showman au
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-10-15
Updated: 2018-10-15
Packaged: 2019-08-02 08:56:33
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 962
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/16302062
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/thesunandthestars/pseuds/thesunandthestars
Summary: He’s aware that he doesn’t belong. He’s reminded of this fact every time he steals a piece of bread, or sits underneath the eaves, watching the rain fall in sheets before his eyes.It wasn’t always like this, he remembers.[A 'The Greatest Showman' AU, featuring New Dream (Eugene and Rapunzel).]





	The Beginning

The streets are unforgiving and hostile, and Eugene Fitzherbert ducks his head from the passing glances of those around him. He knows what he looks like; dirty and as skinny as a nail, so out of place among the waves of color. He’s aware that he doesn’t belong. He’s reminded of this fact every time he steals a piece of bread, or sits underneath the eaves, watching the rain fall in sheets before his eyes. 

It wasn’t always like this, he remembers.

He remembers a time where he had somewhere to go home to, a father to watch over him. There was a time where he peered past the towers of fabric in his arms, his father’s needle pushing through the sleeve of a jacket. A time where he pulled heavy oak doors open and illuminated a dream with his lantern. 

He remembers a song, one that he knew by heart. He remembers every word as if it was yesterday.

_Every night I lie in bed, the brightest colors fill my head, a million dreams are keeping me awake._

Now, these memories have almost faded, layers of dirt and hunger and pain burying his old life. Eugene is used to stealing to survive, sleeping on the streets and taking shelter in alleyways. It’s what he has to do, what has to happen after a boy watches his father being lowered into the ground on a snowy morning. It’s the only option he has now. No one is willing to take pity on him.

But there is a girl, whose name is as rare and as beautiful as she is. A girl that writes to him every week, whose letters fill him with an emotion he does not know how to define. A girl that reminds him to keep going and who ends her letters with _Love, Rapunzel_ every time. She is the only part of his past he has left, and he is determined not to let her slip from his fingers. He waits for her, and he believes her when she tells him _soon_.

Eugene remembers the long golden hair that cascaded down her back, and the round emerald eyes that glittered when she laughed. He remembers the way she held her head high and kept the tears back when her father’s hand flew across her cheek, the punishment for defending Eugene. He hasn’t seen her in years, but he knows that when she returns, he will fall for her all over again. He doesn’t care that her father will not approve. He will give her the life she deserves, no matter what it takes. He would do anything for her.

Standing before the towering doors of Rapunzel’s father’s mansion, Eugene clasps his hands behind his back. It’s been almost a decade since he last saw her, almost a decade since his father’s last breath, but Eugene knows she is waiting just inside these doors for him. She has been waiting for him since the first day he held his hand out for her and led her to his dream, and he knows it.

The door swings open and there her father stands, looking just as pleased to see Eugene as if he had discovered a rat on his pillow. Eugene ignores his tight-lipped smile and glances over the man’s shoulder to catch a glimpse of the figure waltzing down the staircase, her long lavender dress spilling over her body and piling at her feet. She stops at the bottom of the staircase to grant her mother a peck on the cheek, murmurs a farewell, and then those emerald eyes land on Eugene. A hundred feelings wash over him, and the weight of her in his arms makes him feel more complete than he ever has in his life.

“She’ll be back,” Rapunzel’s father reminds Eugene, but he does not hear the words. “Sooner or later, she’ll tire of your life, of having nothing, and she’ll come running back home.”

But when he looks at her, she threatens to burst with excitement and wonder. He gathers her up in his arms and twirls her around, and he sees nothing but her. She is central to his dreams, and she is the focus of his future. Without her, he is nothing.

_I think of what the world could be, a vision of the one I see, a million dreams is all it’s gonna take._

He can’t imagine a life without her, so he drops to one knee and presents her with a ring. It’s the ring he has been saving up money for since the day she left the shelter of the mansion she grew up in and ran into Eugene’s open arms, and it promises so much. He has every intention of keeping these promises, so he stands tall as she makes her way down the aisle toward him, toward a bright future. 

They don’t have much, in the small, dingy apartment he bought for them, but they have a home. Eugene has a home, after years of having nothing, and he loves every minute of it. He has Rapunzel, his wife, his everything. He has his two daughters, the girls that, over the last ten years, have bloomed before his eyes. He has that dream, the one that erupted from his heart all those years ago and is still there, waiting. 

Eugene has more than he could have ever dreamt of. Money runs low and some nights Rapunzel is awake worrying about their daughters, but Eugene assures her that it will all be fine. There’s nothing more he could possibly want. This is his dream, what happens after happily ever after. To him, this is the happy ending.

But what he doesn’t know is that this is only the beginning.

**Author's Note:**

> I was listening to the soundtrack for The Greatest Showman, and I suddenly started picturing Eugene and Rapunzel singing the song 'A Million Dreams'. (I just feel like it fits them well.) This fic was born from the idea. 
> 
> The one line of dialogue is from the movie The Greatest Showman, as well as the italicized song lyrics.
> 
> It's shorter than I would have liked, but there's nothing more I want to add, so here you go! I hope you enjoy, and don't forget to drop a comment or kudos if you'd like! ;w;


End file.
